Table of contents for January 2016 in Octane

I THINK WE’VE ALL FELT the frustration of rising values sometimes, when that car you’ve lusted after remains tantalisingly out of reach, whether that car is a Ferrari 250 or a Fiat 500. Just look at Porsche 911s, which have gone stratospheric recently, beyond all logic. There are plenty of others that, while hardly ‘cheap’, seemed reasonably priced for what they were. Like the Miura or, much further down the scale, the Alfa Romeo Montreal. And then you look away for a few moments, look back, and they’ve started to go crazy. Why do I mention this now? Because finally it felt like the right time to do justice to the greatest of the first-generation hot hatchbacks, which in the UK and Europe in particular changed the face of the…

THE REOPENING of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, after a radical exterior and interior refit, was due to take place in the first week of December as Octanewent to press. ‘It’s the largest project being done in this short a time anywhere in the US,’ museum director Terry Karges told Octane. ‘No-one believed that it would be finished in time, but what’s happening now is that people are saying the reality is even better than the artist’s renderings. ‘It will be one of the two most iconic structures in Los Angeles [the other being the Walt Disney Concert Hall], and tourists will come just to see the exterior. The interior had to match the exterior though, so we’ve doubled the size of the lobby, and there are 25…

4-7 December AUTORETRO BARCELONA. Barcelona, Spain autoretro.es 5-8 December LEJOG. Land’s End to John O’Groats, UK heroevents.eu 19 December WÖLDINGHAMRING CLASSIC CAR CIRCUIT AND GATHERING. Warlingham, UK xkeidp@gmail.com 2016 1 Januart BROOKLANDS NEW YEAR’S DAY GATHERING. Weybridge, UK brooklandsmuseum.com 3 Januart BICESTER HERITAGE SUNDAY BRUNCH SCRAMBLE. Bicester, UK bicesterheritage.co.uk 14-17 Januart AUTOSPORT INTERNATIONAL. Birmingham NEC, UK autosportinternational.com 14-17 Januart INTERCLASSICS MAASTRICHT. Maastricht, Netherlands interclassicsmaastricht.nl 20-24 Januart CAVALLINO CLASSIC. Palm Beach, USA cavallino.com 24-29 Januart THE WINTER TRIAL. Norway and Sweden thewintertrial.nl 27 Januart – 3 Februart RALLYE MONTE-CARLO HISTORIQUE. Monte Carlo, Monaco acm.mc 3-7 Februart RÉTROMOBILE. Paris, France retromobile.com 13-14 Februart GREAT WESTERN AUTOJUMBLE. Shepton Mallet, UK carsandevents.com 18-21 Februart LONDON CLASSIC CAR SHOW. London, UK thelondonclassiccarshow.co.uk 21-25 Februart WINTER CHALLENGE. UK/Luxembourg to Monaco heroevents.eu 4-6 march ANTWERP CLASSIC SALON.…

THE PORSCHE 911 is as Darwinian as a sports car can get. The consummate all-rounder, it’s evolved from slim-hipped, air-cooled 130bhp ’60s sports car to buxom, water-cooled and far more powerful supercar. Early-Volkswagen DNA sees even today’s 991 retain its rear-mounted flat-six, an evolutionary cul-de-sac if ever there was one, but Stuttgart stubbornness and ingenuity has made its curious engine position work. Visually you might be wondering why the 991 is on these pages at all, but this latest version has just been significantly revised. The changes to its styling – new bumpers, revised lights front and rear, and, er, new door handles – follow Porsche’s evolutionary norm. Inside, there’s more connectivity and minor revisions to infotainment and driver control systems, but nothing too radical. This is a Porsche, after…

AS A READER of this publication you will inevitably tend to warm towards a car like the new Lexus GS F. Beneath its dramatically styled new bonnet it features a delicious old thumper of a 5.0-litre V8 engine, with not an electric motor nor even a turbo in sight to help it generate the goods – in this case 464bhp and 391lb ft of torque. Likewise, its chassis may well have been stiffened compared with that of the regular GS and then equipped with an electronic diff that can send torque to whichever rear wheel can deal with it best – but it’s still a traditional, front-engined, rear-drive thundersaloon at heart. As for the noise it makes, there really is nothing quite like it nowadays, not since BMW, Mercedes et…

IT’S FAIR TO SAY THAT, on looks alone, the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe halts you in your tracks. Stops you dead. Those legendary curves, that tarmac-hunkered nose, the sheer devil-may-care attitude of that abrupt tail; 50 years ago those aerodynamic refinements won Shelby the GT III class in the 1965 FIA World Sportscar Championship. Pete Brock’s design work had turned an olde-worlde roadster – one with its roots in a genteel English sports car, let’s not forget – into something capable of seeing off Ferraris in sustained high-speed racing. You know, the kind of racing in which reduced drag scores you seconds and greater stability keeps you on the track. Even if, underneath, it was deliberately as unsophisticated as always, running as it did (and still does) on what good…

PORSCHE AND the Targa Florio. The Targa Florio and Porsche. They’re pretty much inseparable. Think Targa Florio and imagine Brian Redman in the bonkers Gulf-liveried Porsche 908/03 Spyder duelling with local hotshot Nino Vaccarella’s Ferrari 512S. Or Gijs van Lennep and Herbert Müller in the 911 Carrera RSR, snatching unlikely victory ahead of the more powerful prototypes. These are the stuff of legend from the little island sat precariously on Italy’s toe, where one of the greatest road races of all time somehow survived from 1906 until 1977, when the local police closed it down mid-race – though the last running of the Targa Florio as an international championship event had been in 1973. In all that time, the Targa Florio was won by a Porsche 11 times, by an…

DURING THE 1960s, Maserati’s final decade under the auspices of the Orsi family, such classics as the Ghibli supercar and Quattroporte saloon were launched – as well as the Mexico, an agile four-seater aimed at the sporting gentleman driver. It was introduced at the 1965 Turin motor show, in conservative Vignale clothing by Virginio Vairo, which clad the archetypal Maserati tubular chassis, live rear axle, a 4.7-litre V8 (from 1969 a cheaper 4.2 as well) and Girling disc brakes at all four corners. So far, so familiar. Yet two were also bodied – uniquely – by Frua, one a 4.2-litre car with semi-faired-in headlights reminiscent of the coachbuilder’s Mistral (in fact, a third wore a modified Mistral body). The other is the car in these pictures, chassis number 112.1.103, which…

NINE DAYS! Longer than it took Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to fly to the moon and back in 1969. Long enough to listen to the complete works of Mozart. Long enough to watch all 24 James Bond films four times (or, more sensibly, to watch Goldeneye99 times). Barrett-Jackson’s annual Scottsdale auction, which will take place this year between 23-31 January, has become an unprecedented circus of classic car selling, a surreal, Technicolor show that explodes from the Arizona desert each year. Among the cars set to contribute to the spectacle in 2016 is this fabulous 1959 Chevrolet Corvette, nicknamed the ‘Purple People Eater’ a er the ‘one-eyed, one-horned flyin’’ monster that sat atop the Billboardpop charts for six painfully long weeks in 1958. Its fearsome moniker was deserved: with…

SHORTLISTED WERE: Brooklands museum www.brooklandsmuseum.com la macchina del Tempo www.museoalfaromeo.com mullin auTomoTive museum www.mullinautomotivemuseum.com MERCEDES-BENZ MUSEUM www.mercedes-benz.com SPECTACULAR IN BOTH concept and execution, the double-helix-inspired Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart unpicks the DNA of the world’s most storied marque, tracing its origins all the way back to 1886 via two tours which spiral down through the enormous, striking building, designed by award-winning Dutch architecture practice UNStudio. Visitors are invited to examine 160 vehicles over the museum’s nine levels, and more than 1500 exhibits in total. ‘Examine’ is the right word, too: while guests are obviously not invited to clamber all over the many priceless racing cars on display, there are frequently hands-on exhibitions designed to encourage children to take an interest in automotive history. The museum is not solely focused on…

SHORTLISTED WERE: hagerTy www.hagerty.com Jaguar Land rover speciaL vehicLe operaTions www.jaguarlandrover.com porsche MoTorsporTs norTh aMerica www.porsche.com The royaL auToMobiLe cLub www.royalautomobileclub.co.uk McPHERSON COLLEGE AUTOMOTIVE RESTORATION PROGRAM www.mcpherson.edu ANYBODY WHO HAS found themselves fretting about where the next generation of car (and motorcycle) restorers will learn their trade is obviously not familiar with McPherson College in central Kansas. McPherson is the only college in the world to offer a four-year bachelor’s degree in Automotive Restoration, and its graduates are beginning to play an increasingly prominent role in shaping the future of the historic car world, working at museums, auction houses and marketing and design companies, as well as in traditional restoration shops. The college runs a ‘Summer Institute’, too, which offers hobbyists of all ages the opportunity to benefit from the…

SHORTLISTED WERE: Porsche club Gb www.porscheclubgb.com The VeTeran MoTor car club of aMerica www.vmcca.org The Wolseley reGisTer www.wolseleyregister.co.uk VinTaGe hoT rod associaTion www.vhra.co.uk BENJAFIELD’S RACING CLUB www.benjafields.com With its roots firmly planted in the traditions of the famous ‘Bentley Boys’ with their love of fierce racing, roaring parties and derring-do, the 100-strong Benjafield’s Racing Club celebrated its 25th anniversary during 2015. To mark the occasion the club organised a number of events in the UK and Europe, including its own 24-hour race, the Benjafield 24, described as a recreation of the 1924 Le Mans event, but in the Algarve. The latter event also commemorated the 90th anniversary of Captain John Duff’s historic win at Le Mans in a 3.0-litre Bentley. Held at the Autodromo Portimao in Portugal, and with crews…

SHORTLISTED WERE: ClassiC Days sChloss DyCk www.schloss-dyck-classic-days.de ConCorso D’ElEganza Villa D’EstE www.concorsodeleganzavilladeste.com ConCours of ElEganCE at holyrooDhousE www.concoursofelegance.co.uk PEbblE bEaCh ConCours D’ElEganCE www.pebblebeachconcours.net rétromobilE www.retromobile.com amElia islanD ConCours D’ElEganCE www.ameliaconcours.org CHANTILLY ARTS & ELEGANCE RICHARD MILLE peterauto.peter.fr ThEmEd ArOUNd ‘the French Art of Living and Elegance’, the second running of this event again combined the skills and beauty of the automotive coachbuilders and the couture houses, supported by fine art, cordon bleu cookery, and superior French wines and Champagnes. It was clearly a formula that found favour with visitors – numbers rose by 35% to 13,500 – and also with the IhmA judges, as the event won this same category first time out last year. In the 17th Century, French aristocracy would parade horse-drawn carriages in Parisian parks during the…

SHORTLISTED WERE: Brian Joscelyne Aston Martin Owners Club rod spollon Chateau Impney Hill Climb doug Hill and ian stanfield The National Motor Museum JULIUS THURGOOD Historic Racing Drivers Club HAVINg ALrEAdy LAUNCHEd and made a success of the Historic racing drivers Club’s ‘Touring greats’ race series for pre-1960 Touring Cars, in 2015 Julius Thurgood decided to create another, more inclusive series to run alongside it and encourage even more drivers into the historic racing fold: the HrdC Academy, an entry-level class of cars that embraces all the positive aspects of historic racing in an affordable package. Academy cars are based on identical Austin A30 and A35 two-door saloons designed to be capable of self-build to keep the costs as low as £15,000. At the time of writing, the Academy already…

HAVE YOU SEEN new Bond movie Spectreyet? If not, spoiler alert – the scene where Bond pulls up in a courtyard in a Roman palazzo, which is stuffed with supercars belonging to the baddies who’ve gathered for a SPECTRE senior management meeting, was filmed not in Rome but at… Blenheim Palace. The Oxfordshire stately home, arguably England’s finest and still occupied by the 11th Duke of Marlborough, recently hosted another visit by Bond’s Aston Martin DB10, together with the SpectreBond DB5 – and a few dozen Astons owned by customers and clients (or, in one instance, lent to Octane). The cars were lined up in the courtyard for a special drive-in screening of a new one-hour documentary about the making of the DB10, following a Q&A session inside the Palace…

25 OCTOBER Pasadena, California, USA THIS IS NOT YOUR run-of-the-mill Southern California car show or concours d’elegance. First, there’s the venue, the hillside campus of Art Center College of Design, whose alumni are responsible for many of the most noteworthy automotive designs of the last seven decades. Then there are the cars, from a 1907 Jewel Stanhope to the latest concepts penned by the school’s graduates. In between, attendees were treated to cars from the brass era, interwar classics, noteworthy designs from the post-war years and European exotics to concepts that stretch the boundaries of personal transportation that we’ll be driving in the years to come. Then there are the judges, many graduates of Art Center themselves, who read like a Who’s Who of the last quarter-century of automotive design.…

QUESTION: ARE PROPER cars made of metal? Do you ever feel slightly uncomfortable paying a large amount of money for a plastic car, as I did a while ago for the Lotus Elan I no longer own? Perhaps carbonfibre transcends notions of plasticness to reach a rarefied status as the miracle constructional material favoured for F1 cars, aircraft, current McLarens and more, but old prejudices die hard nonetheless. Which is one reason why McLaren’s newest and cheapest models, the 540C (for ‘Club’) and the 570S you see here, seem suddenly to have entered the real world. Most of the outer body panels are in crisp-edged, precisely pressed sheet aluminium, with hydroforming used for the ultra-light engine cover. And then there’s the stuff they are missing relative to lodestone of the…

COMPLACENCY DOES NOT exist at Ferrari. You suspect that it could creep in and yet that badge and its heritage would still see profits soaring. However, Maranello just won’t hear of it in this new golden age for the marque. The lighter, faster and more extreme version of the F12 – called the F12tdf in reference to the old Tour de France road race – pulsates with Ferrari’s ambition and ruthless pursuit of ever-sharper dynamics. Only 799 will be built at £339,000 apiece, around £100,000 more than the ‘normal’ F12. The numbers tell some of the story but not all. Extensive use of carbonfibre cuts weight by 110kg to 1415kg (dry). Downforce is increased by 87% to 230kg at 124mph and, of course, power is up, too. The 6.3-litre V12…

AT OCTANE MAGAZINE we major on interesting old cars. But we look to the future, too. Here’s a piece of it with not a single octane molecule in its function, nor any other hydrocarbon. Just the hydro. This is the Toyota Mirai. Its beauty isn’t in this particular beholder’s eye, but it certainly flaunts its differentness. The Mirai – ‘future’ in Japanese – is electric, but you don’t plug it in. It’s a fuel-cell car, a technology reckoned to be the solution once the oil has gone, so it reverse-electrolyses hydrogen into electricity and water, the only substance to emerge from its plastic exhaust pipe. Fuel-cell cars have inhabited carmakers’ R&D departments for a while, and some have been replicated to production standards – Honda’s FCX Clarity, for example. You…

JUST LOOK AT THE FLAMES shooting out of the exhaust stubs of the Sunbeam 350hp Land Speed Record car in this photograph. For those attending the Beaulieu One Hundred club’s annual dinner at the National Motor Museum in October, the deep, thunderous sound that went with it was equally unforgettable. The first person to travel at more than 150mph was Sir Malcolm Campbell, who took the official record at Pendine in 1925 with this car, achieving an average of 150.87mph. Ninety years later, its mighty, purpose-built 18.3-litre V12 engine was swung into life at the first attempt by two very strong men from the museum’s restoration department and, with both banks of the enormous engine firing evenly, the memorable moment grabbed our attention as we took our drinks before dinner.…

YOU MIGHT THINK of the two cars here as quite new. They are not. They straddle an age of three decades, old enough to have qualified for free road tax were the original, pre-New Labour concession still intact. But there’s also the matter of the levelling-off of progress in car design, nowadays concerned more with conforming to regulations and embracing the digital age than coming up with radical new architecture, beyond the topological distortion and uglification those regulations demand. A car of 1955 is much more different from these two than these two are from today’s machines. But there are few new machines that we can confidently predict to be Octane cover material in 30 years’ time. With these two, their place in history was assured from day one. I…

SOME MONTHS AGO I was invited to help with filming a docu-drama in Sicily. It was a production entitled A Sicilian Dream, commemorating the great years of the fabulous Targa Florio. For several generations of motor racing tifosi, La Favoloso Targa was at once the most dramatic, the most romantic, the most charismatic of all the world’s greatest sports car races. Founded in 1906 by Count Vincenzo Florio, it was intended to put his beloved home island of Sicily on the international map. He wanted to elevate his remote and too-often deprived native province onto a world stage, to promote tourism, and to publicise his family businesses. The Florio empire included Mediterranean-American shipping, tuna fishing and canning, and Marsala wine. A charming, personable, engaging and persuasive gentleman, Vincenzo Florio had…

‘THIS IS FAR more fun than motor racing!’ exclaims leading racing driver Willie Green during the Octane Hotel de France Tour, around the beautiful La Chartre-sur-le-Loir, near the Le Mans racing circuit. With 17 readers heading down through France in their classic and performance cars for an exclusive five-day tour (supported by classic-car event lovers EFG Private Bank), it turns out to be a fabulous experience in more ways than one. Proceedings get underway on a Wednesday evening – I’m joined by my cohort Mark Venning, who has come over from Santiago, Chile, for the experience – as the cars are loaded onto Britanny Ferries’ good ship Bretagne in Portsmouth. The teams drop their luggage in the comfortable cabins and make for the private bar and an aperitif before settling…

IDON’T REMEMBER which line of story research possessed me to exhume my mouldering October 1966 copy of Road & Track magazine, but whatever it was didn’t survive an opening glance at the table of contents. Instead, I spent the afternoon with that late master of American motoring letters, R&T European correspondent and close friend of my youth Henry Manney, watching the French GP at ‘charming old-world Reims, where the dust is grittier, the pollen sneezier, the prices unreasonabl-er… and the police asterisker than any other racetrack I can think of’. A few more pages and race reports later we had decamped across the Channel to western Scotland for a first-hand lesson in whisky-making. The basics of which were, according to Manney: ‘A visit to Scotland in October – or practically…

1924 Grand Prix of Europe at Lyons £POA. www.pullmangallery.com MAKE SOME ROOM on the wall of your man cave – an 81x62-inch space will do it – for this warm and romantic original work by Dexter Brown, painting in this instance in oils and under the pseudonym of ‘de Bruyne’. The piece depicts preparations for the 1924 Grand Prix d’Europe. In the foreground is a quartet of Alfa Romeo P2s on their maiden outing, while in the background is another Grand Prix debutant that would go on to make quite the name for itself: the Bugatti Type 35. Astell & Kern AK T8iE earphones £799. www.astellnkern.com HIGH END AUDIOPHILE brand Astell & Kern partnered with Beyerdynamic to design from scratch these new reference-quality earphones, which are distinguished by their crisp,…

NEVER DOUBT THE value of a good PR officer. Theodore Bruce’s Motorclassica Melbourne sale in late October sounded like a triumph: with total sales of AUS$3.7m (around £1.738m) it was proclaimed to have set an auction record not just for Australia, but also for the whole of the southern hemisphere. And that with just 44 cars being offered. The press release also boasted of an ‘incredible’ AUS$635,000 for a ‘lost’ alloy-bodied Jaguar XK120, a ‘record’ AUS$204,900 for a small bumper Porsche 911T, and a ‘world record price of AUS$106,875 in or out of auction’ for a rare 1951 Hartnett Pacific Tourer. But the Hartnett was a boast too far: it’s sort of cute, but hardly worth bragging about. Unless you’re trying to distract from some other truth… Motorclassica’s results showed…

IT IS SILLY to critique the appearance of cars designed to be purely practical, but it’s fair to say that KT Keller’s approach to product development was never likely to deliver anything pretty or delicate. The Chrysler boss insisted that all cars made on his watch should all provide ample room for a driver wearing his best dress hat, and they did. But by the time Virgil Exner joined the company in 1949, there was a clear need for a different sort of thinking. ‘Different’, Exner could certainly do, and the great designer set Chrysler on the path that would ultimately lead to its ‘Forward Look’ cars with this one, the Ghia-built Chrysler Special. Unveiled to an adoring crowd at the Paris Salon of 1952, the Special was built on…

THE ETERNAL ROTATION of the seasons means that spring and summer are inevitably on their way, and yet it’s hard to feel reassured of that certainty when you’re mired in the gloom of a British winter. So how to cheer yourself up when the weather is literally raining on your party? Go out and drive is the simple answer. Splash about. Slither, although not too much. Just head off and have a jolly good time, no matter what the weatherman says. Which leads you to the enticing prospect of what to go out in… The obvious choice, and one with considerable merit, is an off-roader. A 4x4. And what better example of the breed than the model that popularised the genre: the original Range Rover. Tamworth-based Avantgarde has the perfect…

ROBERT COUCHER InternatIonal edItor, octane magazIne IN jUsT fIVE years the International Historic Motoring Awards has become an important fixture on the calendar, and its growth reflects that of the classic car industry, which continues to flourish thanks in large part to the passion and hard work of this year’s IHMA winners and nominees. The success of the Awards, of course, is also a reflection of the continued and generous support provided by EFG Private Bank, a longstanding backer of key historic motoring events around the world. The 2015 ceremony, held at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London, was the biggest yet and was attended by the great and good of the car world, including racing legends Sir Stirling Moss and Paddy Hopkirk. Outside the venue guests encountered more…

SHORTLISTED WERE: ASTON MARTIN WORKS www.astonmartinworks.com CONTOUR AUTOCRAFT www.contourautocraft.co.uk STRADA E CORSA www.stradaecorsa.com WILLIAM MEDCALF LIMITED www.vintagebentley.com 3 D ENGINEERS www.3dengineers.co.uk OLD CARS MIGHT be the preoccupation of the specialists in our little corner of the world, but that certainly doesn’t mean that those specialists are only versed in old-fashioned techniques. 3D Engineers is a case in point: one of the leading providers of digital services for the historic car world, the company has invested in several new pieces of high-tech equipment in the past 12 months. Services offered now include 3D scanning, as the name suggests, but also computer-aided design and modelling, and reverse engineering. Among the company’s recently completed projects – all of which sound fiendishly complicated these ears – were a 1960s-style sports car taken from concept…

SHORTLISTED WERE: equipe GTs www.equipegts.com hrDC TourinG GreaTs / aCaDemy raCe series www.hrdc.eu JaGuar heriTaGe ChallenGe www.hscc.org.uk masTers usa www.mastershistoricracing.com CLASSIC ENDURANCE RACING  peterauto.peter.fr WITH 50-STRONG grids comprising the finest endurance racers from the heyday of the Sports Car World Championship (1966-1979), this is one of the richest historic series in terms of cars entered. Look down the pitlane on race day and you’ll see Lola T70s, a Ferrari 512 BBLM or two, Porsche 935s, perhaps a BMW M1 or an Alfa Romeo Tipo 33. The drivers aren’t half bad either: scan the paddock at any one of the five races that take place between March and October and you’ll spot still-formidable former professionals such as Jürgen Barth, Gérard Larousse and Emanuele Pirro, in addition to some seriously quick amateurs.…

SHORTLISTED WERE Bertha Benz Fahrt www.bertha-benz-fahrt.de Mille Miglia www.1000miglia.eu Modena Cento ore ClassiC www.modenacentooreclassic.it the road to Mandalay www.endurorally.com the Winter trial www.thewintertrial.nl tour auto optiC 2000 peterauto.peter.fr the trans-aMeriCa Challenge www.endurorally.com THE HIGHLAND TOUR www.gtoevents.com THE TWO-DAY prelude to the Concours of Elegance at the Palace of Holyroodhouse saw 53 cars – ranging from a 1903 Mercedes Simplex 60HP to a 2015 Ferrari LaFerrari hypercar – enjoy a 250-mile adventure through the wild beauty of the Highlands. Uncharacteristically, there was even sunshine for The Highland Tour, a feature that revealed Scotland in its full glory. The route wound through the narrow lanes of the glens and scampered across brooding moorland roads; cars raced up the Rest and Be Thankful hillclimb, and the crews stopped for tea with the Duke…

THE HERITAGE MOTOR CENTRE has announced more details of its expansion, along with a name-change to the British Motor Museum to reflect the improvements and its new Arts Council ‘Designated’ status, which confirms the national and international significance of its collections. There are two distinct projects underway, the first to the main museum area, utilising a £1.1-million investment from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust. This will see a complete transformation to the museum, starting with an introductory gallery in the new visitor entrance, which will then flow into a revamped display area split into themed zones, including movie cars, prototypes and sports cars. Some of the cars will be displayed on plinths but the museum staff are keen to point out that the current ethos of allowing visitors to…

AS PAT MOSS’S long-time co-driver in international rallying, Ann Wisdom (pictured on left, with Moss, above, on the 1959 Monte) formed half of one of the most successful teams in the sport, and not only in the Ladies’ category. Pat and Ann were prominent competitors from 1956 to 1962, and it was the duo’s success as outright winners of the gruelling Liège-Rome-Liège Rally that made them legendary in motor sport circles. As their long-time friend and team manager, I have always described this as one of the most amazing drives I’ve ever seen. Born in May 1934, Ann was the daughter of Tommy and Elsie (nicknamed ‘Bill’) Wisdom, both of whom were established in European motor sport. Ann Marie Wisdom (who soon became known as ‘Wiz’) grew up around horses…

5-14 OCT Toledo, Spain, to Marrakech, Morocco THE FIFTH AND FINAL Rally of 2015 from the Endurance Rally Association (ERA), the Sahara Challenge, was a ten-day blast from Toledo in Spain down to Marrakech in Morocco. Billed partly as a shakedown for the upcoming Peking to Paris Rally in 2016, the Sahara Challenge was run as a non-stop, press-on event that gave the 36 crews a taste of what adventure rallying is all about. Complete with a transcontinental border crossing and a night under canvas, the route, set by map maestro Anthony Preston, was certainly a challenging one, taking in twisting Tarmac, high altitude Alpine plateaux, gravel pistes and deep desert sand. There was something for everyone in this rally, which even included two tests on a closed-road circuit on…

London Classic Car Show 18-21 February London, eK TAKING PLACE IN one of the Capital’s foremost exhibition spaces, ExCeL in Royal Victoria Dock, the London Classic Car Show promises to be an international celebration of automotive history. February’s four-day event will bring together the very best collector cars, dealers, specialists, manufacturers, memorabilia, products and clubs. A particular attraction is the central Grand Avenue, an indoor motoring ‘highway’ on which more than 60 classics will be fired up and driven. This will provide a unique chance to see, hear and smell these classics in action, all under one roof. Last year, the inaugural show was praised for its quality but attracted some criticism for being a little light on content. For 2016, organisers say that the event will be nearly twice…

PATIENCE HAS BEEN required with the new NSX. Honda first promised it would develop a new one back in 2007, and only now, almost nine years later, have we been tossed the keys. During that time a lot has happened. The second-generation NSX started out as a V10 monster before it was completely scrapped. Then it returned with a hybrid V6 powertrain and was finally developed into a twin-turbo V6 supercar that sees its power output supplemented by no fewer than three electric motors. It’s almost unrecognisable when compared with its naturally aspirated, rev-ravenous predecessor (developed with help from Ayrton Senna and launched against Ferrari’s 348tb in 1990). Two of the three electric motors are bolted onto the front axle, developing 54lb ft each, while the third is attached to…

IT SPORTS ONE of the biggest tail wings you’ll ever see and looks like a bizarre mix between an Audi R8 and a Renault Twizy. Yet the Renault RS.01 is undeniably drop-dead gorgeous. Its proportions are nigh-on perfect from every angle, and if you took the sponsorship logos away and reduced the size of that rear spoiler a touch, it wouldn’t look out of place wearing numberplates, rumbling down your local high street, rotating heads wherever it went. Despite this, the very beautiful RS.01 is not destined to become a road car any time soon, say RenaultSport bosses. It mightform the basis of a GT3 racing car in the fullness of time, although at the moment its only function is as a racing car that supports the one-make World Series…

TEN YEARS On from the launch of the original e-type, as described in Octane 150’s cover story, history almost repeated itself with the launch of the Series 3 V12. naturally, everyone at Jaguar was very keen for the new car to exceed the legendary 150mph of the original 3.8 six-cylinder car. At the time, I had been seconded by Bob Knight from norman dewis’s department, where I worked on the development testing of the V12, to prepare the 20 press launch vehicles. Michael Scarlett of Autocarwas also very keen to see a ‘max’ at least equivalent to their 1961 test but, after several attempts, they were unable to get much over 144mph. Having had quite a lot of experience testing on the banked no1 circuit at MIRA, I was asked…

Renault keeps the flame alive while peugeot and vw lose the plot THE RENAULT 5 GT TURBO posed the biggest threat to the mid-80s order. The original R5 came in an Alpine Turbo version (Gordini Turbo for the UK) but it was the second-generation R5, with a transverse engine and much more positive handling, that made the basis of the GT Turbo. Its 115bhp (later 120bhp) came from a simple but unburstable 1.4-litre pushrod four, able to cope with the turbocharger’s exertions and giving the craggily styled, bodykitted Renault the pace to match our established protagonists. It handled beautifully, too, but its cabin was truly a temple to hard plastics. Today they are ultra-rare and surely destined for fiscal stardom. And so the ’90s. Peugeot killed the 205 GTI in…

YOU COULD SAY that, when George Barber decided to start a motorcycle collection, he got a bit carried away. The dairy processing tycoon – based in Birmingham, Alabama – started collecting bikes in 1989 and has since established one of the world’s largest motorcycle collections. To house his armoury of exotic machines, Barber built a state-of the art museum so awe-inspiring it could give the Guggenheim a run for its money. It’s nestled within 740 acres of beautifully landscaped parkland, which cuddles Barber’s specially designed race circuit. The track is used by Porsche and Mercedes-Benz for testing, as well as testing for the Indy Grand Prix, but on the days when it’s free, around noon, the museum takes one of its machines out for a blast. The lobby of the…

A FILM STUDIO is rarely a glamorous environment: a world of cables, carpenters and technicians hauling equipment from lot to lot. One such establishment was Beaconsfield, in operation from 1921 to 1966 and in its latter days mainly devoted to comedy films. Today it is home to the National School of Film and Television but many of the buildings remind the visitor of the time when they housed chaps prone to saying ‘gosh’ on a regular basis and a large bearded curmudgeon given to describing moustachioed cads as a ‘miserable worm!’ on an equally regular basis. One such was The Fast Lady, made in 1962 and starring a 1927 Bentley 3 Litre (although fitted with a 4½-litre engine) Speed Model Open Tourer (Red Label model). This was the third entry…

FOR A DECADE I lived under one of Heathrow’s flight paths and, if the wind was in a particular direction, from around 7.10 of an evening a low rumble would reverberate through my house heralding Concorde overhead, bound for the US. I’d dash outside, my roof slates dancing and windows rattling to the soundwaves generated by 152,000lb of take-off thrust from four Olympus 593 turbojet engines as, with vortices trailing, Concorde passed so low I could pick out every detail of its sleek form. Despite the noise I didn’t resent a moment of it and grabbed every opportunity to gaze in awe. Then she was gone. And now, 12 years later, the final link to its delta-winged magnificence – the Avro Vulcan – has also made its last flight. Despite…

SOME PEOPLE are so amazingly talented from such a precocious age that it’s almost depressing to read about their achievements. Adrian Squire was one of those people. At the age of 16, just after leaving Downside school, he produced his own ‘catalogue’ for a Squire sports car, complete with pen-and-ink illustration of the car he fully intended to build. Eight years later he achieved his ambition by setting up Squire Motors Ltd and producing one of the most beautiful sports cars of the pre-war era. He was all of 24 years old. Jonathan Wood produced a monograph about Squire back in 1967 and now, thanks to backing from four owners of Squire cars – among them, Peter Neumark of restoration company CMC, whose Jaguar E-type was the cover star of…

1:43 BY AUTOCULT Texaco Doodtebug tanker PRICE £117.95 MATERIAL Resincast QUALITY VALUE WITHOUT A COMPARATIVE reference point it looks huge – but Texaco’s 1933 ‘Doodlebug’ fuel tanker stood only six feet high. It was designed to present a more acceptable face of fuel deliveries to residential areas, when the big oil companies were trying to promote heating oil as a ‘clean’ domestic fuel over coal. Built on a Diamond T chassis with rear-mounted engine, the Doodlebug was penned under the supervision of vaudeville comic-turned-industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes. It was especially notable for having compound-curvature windscreens, an extremely advanced feature in 1933. Six examples were built. Autocult’s model captures the Doodlebug’s squat shape well and features correctly raised TEXACO lettering on the sides. Definitely different, it should appeal to collectors…

A MORGAN THREEeWHEELER that’s a four-wheeler? Quite. It’s been described (in Morgan circles, yet) as a ‘mongrel’ – but it goes up hillclimbs like a rat up a drainpipe, achieving amazing angles of dangle over Prescott’s Semi-Circle precipice. Driver Charlie Martin’s youth and skill has a lot to do with that; the old age and treachery part comes from a monster methanol-fuelled JAP V-twin and minimal weight. It was built (and is still owned) by Justin Maeers in 1986 when he was just 18 – Maeers is the man who bought a Cooper Monaco at the Silverstone Classic auction, wheeled it straight out to scrutineering and raced it on the Sunday. He’s handed the Morgan over to the almost as youthful Martin to drive. In true VSCC tradition, it’s an…

WITH AN INDEX level of 309.23 the HAGI Top measure of the overall collector car market has more than tripled in value since inception at 100 in December 2008. Impressive as that is, the more recent past reveals a market that is both moderating and evolving. All growth in the four months since our last visit to the HAGI Top has been provided by a 5.38% push in September, which brought the index to a new peak; October showed a decline of 0.18%. That adds up to year-to-date growth of 13.57%, which also aligns closely with 13.67% year-on-year. Those with a nostalgic attachment to peak growth years such as 2013, when the HAGI Top advanced 46.75%, may find that disappointing, but current growth rates are consistent with the historic long-term…

YOU’LL NEVER LACK for conversation if you own an NSU Ro80, for the revolutionary rotary-engined German saloon was both a motoring milestone and calamitous misadventure surpassing the Ford Edsel, DeLorean and Sinclair C5 combined. If all of that appeals, if you find the hydraulic complexity of a Citroën DS too straightforward, and if you’re touched by masochism, then the Ro80 is the car for you. Motoring journalists loved it, but they didn’t have the burden of ownership. The truth is that if two or more NSU evangelists make it to the pub for a noggin and natter, eavesdroppers will think you’re talking about an irritating female complaint. And to be fair there was much to complain about with the Ro80, much of it centred around the word Wankel, which could…

GIVEN THE QUALITY of the nominations for the 2015 Awards, it was important that an appropriately expert panel of judges could be assembled to choose between them – and between the likes of Derek Bell, Ed Gilbertson and Peter Stevens, this year’s group was more than up to the task. Each judge considered the entries to 12 of the 13 categories, while Octane readers voted for Car of the Year. Given the vast experience of the panel, it was inevitable that some judges would be involved with certain nominees, but impartiality was assured: where a judge was linked to a candidate, he abstained from scoring in that category. Each judge worked in private and submitted votes were held until all scores were in. panel of judges DEREK BELL Five-time Le…

SHORTLISTED WERE: 1924 Isotta FraschInI tIpo 8a F by RM Auto Restoration 1936 squIre by Classic Motor Cars Ltd 1954 FIat 8V supersonIc GhIa coupé by Strada e Corsa 1964 aston MartIn DB5 saloon by Aston Martin Works Heritage 1971 PORSCHE 917K by Porsche Historic Motorsports One of the most iconic endurance racers ever to thunder around the world’s circuits, this Gulf-liveried Porsche 917K won the 1971 Spa 1000km – and in the words of the director of Porsche’s Rolling Musem, Klaus Bischof, that was ‘the old Spa, where the guys racing these cars were true heroes’. Prior to its restoration by Porsche Historic Motorsports, the 917K had been stored in the basement of the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, preserved in pretty much the same condition as at its final…

SHORTLISTED WERE: Classic 24 Daytona www.classic24hour.com Eifel Rallye Festival www.eifel-rallye-festival.de Historic Grand Prix Zandvoort www.historicgrandprix.nl Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport www.vhrr.com Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion www.mazdaraceway.com The Silverstone Classic www.silverstoneclassic.com RENNSPORT REUNION www.porscherennsportreunion.com AN EMBARRASSMENT of Stuttgart-built riches awaited visitors to the fifth Porsche Rennsport Reunion, held at Laguna Seca Raceway in California in late September. The marque’s spectacular celebration of its equally spectacular racing history comes around only once every three or four years, but the 2015 edition was certainly worth the long wait, and majored on Le Mans cars – the theme chosen following Porsche’s triumphant return to the Circuit de la Sarthe in June. Between the concours entrants, the seven packed racing grids and the 20 ‘corrals’ of street cars, there were nearly 2000 cars in…